Persons have been hired for many years to operate telephonic equipment in connection in a variety of business activities. These activities have included bill collection, the placement of orders from customers, the taking of surveys, providing customer assistance, registration of persons for classes and events, the providing of medical and legal assistance to the public, and many others. Such persons have traditionally worked from a call center, which is ordinarily a room containing equipment designed for these persons to speak with others such that they aren't required to travel to the center itself. Today, call centers are less and less confined to a single room or building, and those working within a call center are more frequently located at multiple sites and even sometimes across the world. Call centers sometimes even now include locations within employee residences where network access is available.
Those working within call centers are ordinarily agents for a business, sometimes referred to as call service agents, or hereinafter just agents. Traditionally all that has been required for these agents to perform their work has been a telephone and some form of informational carriage such as book of membership or a pad of paper. However, with the advance and availability of computer technology, the work of these agents as been made more efficient.
The computer setup for a call center agent has varied widely, but the discussion will now reference one kind of exemplary setup as an introduction for the inventions presented herein. Now referring to FIG. 1, the components of the exemplary setup for call center agent 101 include a telephone 102, which enables agent 101 to place and/or receive telephone calls by way of SIP equipment 103, utilizing the Session Initiation Protocol in this more modern example. It is to be understood that the use of SIP equipment is merely one convenient example; other kinds of equipment may be used equally well including ordinary telephone service, videoconferencing service, radio, network chat sessions, or any other means of interactive communication between an agent and a distant person. However, for simplicity, the discussion hereinafter will reference telephones to include any kind of interactive distant communication between an agent and a remote party.
The exemplary setup also includes computer interface equipment 106, by which agent 101 may interact with a computer system. That system could include a monitor, a keyboard, a printer, or any other means of providing to or receiving from the agent data in conjunction with calls involving the agent. For example, agent 101 might be engaged in the placing of calls for a survey. Displayed on equipment 106 might be the telephone number being called and the name of the person assigned thereto. If there is a directory available including further information, equipment 106 might provide further information such as for a particular person being contacted, their name, their age, their sex, an account number, a history of interaction, etc. Thus, equipment 106 may facilitate the interaction with a remote person being called such that that person's information need not be requested during the call itself.
Displayed on equipment 106 might also be information of an incoming caller. This display might be called up by the agent 101 upon asking for identification of a caller, or it might be linked to equipment that pulls up such caller information automatically upon receipt of an identity associated with an incoming call, such as a telephone number. In the setup of FIG. 1, SIP equipment 103 is linked to a computer 104, whereby incoming telephone numbers may be transmitted for lookup. Upon receipt of a telephone number, computer 104 performs a lookup in a contact database 105, displaying on equipment 106 for the agent 101 information related to a person or persons likely to be calling in from that telephone number. Having such information displayed, agent 101 can confirm the identity of the caller and avoid unnecessary questioning.
Thus, setups such as the one shown in FIG. 1 can facilitate the activities of a call center agent and more efficiently utilize his time and that of remote persons calling in or being called. The systems and methods disclosed herein provide further functionality, options and efficiencies to prior call center systems, which will become apparent from the discussion below.